


A Friendly Visit

by Rubynye



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Bondage, Captivity, Ficlet Collection, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-14
Updated: 2010-01-13
Packaged: 2017-10-06 07:05:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubynye/pseuds/Rubynye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dominic visits an old friend on a secret mission, only to find that times have changed. (With ficlet sequels appended.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The setting is the waning days of Hellenistic Greece and the rise of Rome. _Erastes_ and _eromenos_ are Ancient Greek terms for the older and younger lovers, respectively, when a man and a youth have a relationship.

Title: A Friendly Visit  
Fandom: LOTR RPS, historical AU  
Pairing: Viggo/Dom, Dom/Billy  
Rating: PG-13

 

When Dom paused in the doorway, Viggo gave him a look that warmed him better than a hot posset. Dom smiled in return, feeling his cheeks flush as they had when he was a youth and Viggo his hopeful suitor, but then, he had always liked Viggo's eyes. Those eyes had regarded him fondly when he was a child, with warm pride when Viggo was his first _erastes_, with clear sympathy and no lies when Dom's father had died fighting the Roman invaders. Now those eyes showed Dom friendliness and frank guileless desire, and Dom had learned to value both.

"Is he settled?" Viggo asked, and Dom nodded, crossing the room to settle beside Viggo on the bed. "Quite pleasantly so. The girl's a nice bit of padding." Dom let his smile grow cheeky, and Viggo laughed quietly, spreading his hands generously. "I am a wealthy man, not least due to your father's friendship; all I have is yours and your friend's."

Dom smiled, pressing his thigh to Viggo's as he knew was wanted. "Thank you for your hospitality. I thank you, and my charge thanks you, and soon all Ariapolis will thank you."

Viggo nodded, and his dispassion irked Dom, who turned a little to face him. "That is as may be," said Viggo, before his brows drew up as he watched Dom's brow furrow, as Dom watched him see it. How could Viggo be so calm, when their city's liberation was at stake? He wanted Viggo to see his irritation.

Then, in the next moment, he remembered he was Viggo's guest, and what Viggo risked by sheltering an exile and a rebel prince, and he let his face smooth with gratitude, and watched Viggo's answering smile. "That is as may be," Viggo repeated, calm as ever, "but what I wish to hear of is not politics, but your life, Dominic. When I last saw you it was as a proud beautiful boy, unwilling to live on my charity---" Dom winced at his own words returned to him, but Viggo's smile was kind--- "leaving our city to fight for pay. Now here you are, a beautiful man, clearly doing well. What have you done with yourself these last five years? There's more than what you told over dinner."

Dom grinned, looking at his hands, still unable to credit his fortune. "I was captured by my captive," he said, and paused till Viggo replied, "speak plainer, o sphinx."

Dom did. "I met a man, when I captured him in the Battle of Vrea." Viggo laughed softly, and gestured for Dom to continue. "His name is Billy. By the time he was to be ransomed, well, a soldier's life had lost its shine, and we had grown closer, so he asked me home with him. His family retained their lands under the Kavalans, even though they lost two sons fighting them; so, shorn of young men, with Billy now the eldest son, they made a place for me. Billy plans to wed me to his niece when she's grown. She's a tall, pert child; I could do far worse."

Viggo rested his hand on the far side of Dom's waist. "He sounds like a good man, your Billy, and a good place for you. So how did you come to be mixed up in an intrigue, smuggling an exiled prince into a city where any Roman soldier could kill him for an extra week's pay?"

Dom shook his head. How could Viggo not see? "That is why! Any, every Roman soldier should not be here in our city! This is a Hellene city, she should be proud and free, not a Roman slave; with the prince leading the rebellion, she will be."

"Or she'll be razed to the ground," Viggo retorted quietly. He always spoke so quietly when he truly meant something, Dom recalled; Viggo's face was stern now, his gaze cold, but Dom was a man grown, and he kept his chin up and his own gaze steady until Viggo's smile unfurled and he shook his head. "You've grown, Dominic," he said proudly, and Dominic gave in and returned the smile. "You would have quailed beneath that look when you were a boy."

"I would have known you were right," Dominic said, leaning closer to Viggo nevertheless. Each small flare of conflict struck sparks that were lighting warmth and memory to flame. "But now I know I am. Don't you?'

Viggo shook his head again, his smile softening to sadness. "You shouldn't be in intrigues, Dominic," he said, pressing his hand into Dom's waist, cupping Dom's face in his other hand. Dom wanted to close his eyes and sink into the remembered touch of that broad calloused hand, but now that would be surrender; instead he set his jaw, but Viggo's smile only widened. "Your face is too honest for intrigues." As he spoke, Viggo leaned in close and warm, and despite the words, Dom let his eyes sink closed, let himself sink into Viggo's heat, let himself be kissed till none of it mattered.

 

* * *

 

How Dom had changed in five years, Viggo thought, running his hands over broader shoulders, pressing his mouth to a jaw already faintly bristly. He was still Dominic, the lad Viggo had taught the ways of love, the lad who seemed to sprout extra hands in his excitement, who moaned greedily when he was bitten, who writhed beneath Viggo with eyes shut tight and mouth sweetly open. But he was no lad anymore, his arms so strong they squeezed all the breath out of Viggo, his teeth sharp on Viggo's throat and lips and ears. Viggo forced his own eyes open to watch Dom as he peaked, the column of his neck strong where it had been tender, even as it curved in the same arch, the breathless cry a groan now rather than a wail. He had grown into a fine man, indeed.

A man who deserved better than Viggo was about to serve him, even if it were the only way.

Viggo had successfully kept such thoughts away all the time they had made love, but that very lovemaking had left him open enough to be vulnerable to them. Well, it was time for the wine, anyway; Viggo had just been reminded of how Dom applied himself without reserve, and remembered that he would be thirsty afterwards.

Indeed he was. "Wine! I would love a drink!" Dom lay sprawled across the bed, loose-limbed and graceful, but now he raised himself on an elbow to kiss Viggo, his lips as eager as ever, the scrape of his cheek so unfamiliar. Viggo kissed him back, hooding his eyes to hide them, and rose to knock for a servant.

Of course, the servant who answered was Viggo's trusted freedman, and Andy already knew what Viggo needed when he requested wine. Dom didn't notice that Viggo didn't drink; why would he? Nor did he notice any odd flavor to the wine, which was rich and sweet and carefully chosen, as he drank lustily. He did notice Viggo watching him, and flushed as if the wine were filling his cheeks, his own eyes heavy-lidded. Looking into those storm-dark eyes, the curve of that strong neck, Viggo thought how he might have had a second round that night from Dom, and sighed. Ah, well. Soon he would have Dom all and entire, except perhaps his willingness. That thought twinged, but Viggo soothed it by reminding himself that he would have Dom alive, and he could live with that.

Dom took Viggo's sigh for satisfaction, and replied with one of his own, stretching like a cat. "Ah, you haven't changed at all," he said with his cheeky grin. "Glorious as ever."

Viggo merely tilted his head with a modest smile, which froze on his face at Dom's next words. "I hope the prince is sleeping as well as I shall in a few moments."

Viggo sighed again. He did have to tell Dom, didn't he? He owed the truth, at least. Steeling himself, gentling his voice and carefully withdrawing his hand, Viggo said, "I am sure he sleeps better than he ever has. That is the way of hemlock, as I understand."

Dom's head whipped around, his face an almost comical mask of shock. "What?"

"He is dead, Dominic," Viggo said, still gentle, still not touching Dom, who had gone so stiff he vibrated. Dom stared at Viggo, gray eyes wide, his mouth forming a single silent word; then his face firmed, all at once, from a young shocked expression to a man's anger, and, as Viggo had known he would, Dom lunged.

Viggo rolled with it, keeping an arm between Dom's hand and his throat, a knee between their bodies; even drugged, Dom was strong and lithe, and Viggo thought to himself that if Dom's intent had been his life he would have been in some danger. However, the word Dom's mouth had formed was not 'no' or even 'why' but 'Billy'; Dom's thought, as he tumbled from the bed, kicking himself free of Viggo's entangling hold, was to escape.

Viggo sighed as he reached beneath the bed. He wished he might send Dom back to his Billy, to the Vrean countryside and safety. He really did. He bit his lip as he withdrew the hidden dagger, and winced as he threw at Dom's fleeing back, almost feeling the bite of sharp metal in his own flesh.

The dagger hit. Dom cursed softly as his leg abruptly disobeyed him; much louder was the thud of his collision with the locked door. Viggo drew a breath to tell Andy to leave them be, but the discreet freedman must have been listening, and didn't even knock; Viggo returned all his attention to watching Dom slide down the door, blood pooling beneath him. He landed in a heap, as Viggo rose from the bed, approaching Dom as one might a wounded lion; Dom pushed himself up on one arm, pulling out the dagger with a wince, and looked up at Viggo with a clear-eyed, wry smile. "You wounded me," he said, voice low as his curses.

"For your own good." Not looking away from Dom, Viggo tore a strip from the bedlinen. Dom immediately flipped the dagger in his hand, holding it before him. "Traitor," Dom said, his stillness certainly not calm.

"Dom, let me tend you." Viggo stepped closer; Dom pushed himself up further, brandishing the dagger, but his hand moved sluggishly, and he stared at it, pink tongue sweeping out over his lips. "I---Viggo, you drugged me. You poisoned him, you drugged me. Viggo. You betrayed us." Dom's voice cracked; the dagger fell to the floor. Dom fumbled for it, but Viggo kicked it away from him and knelt beside him.

Even weak with the drug, Dom's fist had force behind it. Viggo shook his head, feeling his jaw throb, and smiled proudly at Dom, who scowled back. "You're strong."

"And stupid, to trust you. You betrayed me!" Dom's voice was rising now. Viggo ducked another, slower blow and bent to wind the linen band round the wound, pressing on the solid thigh he had not so long ago felt pressed to his. "You were already betrayed," he told Dom as he worked. "The Romans knew you were bringing him; they planned to take you outside the city. I begged them to let me deal with you."

"And this is how." Dom's words were slurring, both from bleeding and the drug. Viggo reached to the bed, tore another strip, wrapped it round the first bandage. "You gave Ariapolis to the Romans, murdered the prince, for what, for me?"

"Ariapolis already belongs to the Romans." Viggo sat back on his heels and took Dom's chin in his hand; Dom's hands batted uselessly at Viggo's arm, but his gray eyes held a steady glare. He was so angry, and so beautiful with it, and Viggo needed for him to understand. "As a councilor of Ariapolis, I am their steward, Dominic. I stand between this city and destruction at their hands." He punctuated the words with a little shake; unmoved, Dominic merely maintained that flat gray stare. "They wanted to publicly execute you and the prince, in the Agora. Is this not better?"

Dominic pressed his mouth tightly shut. After a moment's wait, Viggo released his face, to loop hands beneath his arms and drag him away from the puddle of blood; then, propping him against the wall, Viggo tried again.. "Dominic. My lovely boy Dom." Dominic winced, but didn't reply, didn't look away. "If I'd let you go, you'd have been arrested and executed. Your life is my reward. When I may, I will send you from the city safely. If you behave, if you do not destroy yourself. I will write your Billy that you died a hero's death." Dom winced again, his whole body shuddering violently, his eyes crumpling shut. "Misbehave, and I'll write him that you were executed as a criminal."

"Don' you write him a thing," Dominic slurred, fierce even with the drug and the bleeding. Viggo ran fingers over Dom's trembling jaw, and wished he might kiss him, but Dom had a man's dignity, and Viggo would not deny it to him. "Viggo," Dom mumbled, and when Viggo looked up at his face, his expression, stripped bare by the drug, was a boy's wide-eyed hurt. "I trusted you. You've changed."

Even as the words left his lips, Dom slumped; Viggo eased him down, and knocked for Andy to help him clean up.


	2. A Ficlet for Dutch Eowyn (Dom & Elijah, AU, rated PG)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elijah makes a discovery.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For [](http://rodneyscat.livejournal.com/profile)[**rodneyscat**](http://rodneyscat.livejournal.com/). Dom &amp; Elijah, not quite Dom/Elijah (yet). Part of a WIP, whose prequel I shall now set myself to writing.
> 
> Set in the waning days of Hellenistic Greece. PG for nudity.

When the door swung open, Elijah nearly dropped the key in shock. Of all the sights he might have thought he'd find behind the door of a locked chamber in his uncle's house, he never dreamed he'd see a young man with a two-day stubble, nude but for a bandage round one thigh, sprawled out on a bed and staring up out of a barred window.

The young man turned his head, regarding Elijah expressionlessly, and Elijah blinked in baffled recognition. He knew this man, a few years his elder, though he couldn't recall from where. The man propped his head up on one hand, and his fair hair caught the light, and Elijah's throat closed up. It wasn't that he was handsome; his face was lopsided, he was little taller than Elijah himself, no artist would have tolerated those defects even for the opportunity to capture those shoulders and thighs in paint or marble. But his eyes glinted grey, even from across the room, and he stretched with an easy grace, and it wasn't that he wasn't handsome, but that he was beautiful.

And he was locked away in Elijah's uncle's house, where no one had spoken of him. And his name was Dominic, Elijah suddenly recalled. Dominic, who had been his uncle's _eromenos_ some years back, whose father had died fighting the Romans, who had recently died in an imbroglio involving the dead king's last remaining son. Elijah's uncle had mourned a bit, as befit a well-born man when his former lover dies. A little mourning, not too much, as befit a Hellene.

Dominic watched Elijah with flat grey eyes; he lay on a bed in a little locked room, finely formed chest rising and falling, certainly not dead. Elijah stared back, frozen in the doorway as if Medusa lay there looking at him.

One side of Dominic's mouth drew up in something not quite half of a smile. "Elijah. Well met." Elijah nodded soundlessly, tongue stuck as fast as his feet. "Come in and shut the door before your uncle catches us."


	3. From a poll post: A Dom/Viggo AU Scenelet (PG-13)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Viggo, Dominic, shaving and conversation.

Dominic turned his head a fingersbreadth, tilting it just a bit, and Viggo carefully drew the razor up along the planes of throat and jaw and cheek. "That's the last of it," Viggo said hoarsely, hardly hearing his own voice for the blood rushing in his temples.

"Thank you for shaving me," Dominic said, cool and proud as a prince, grey gaze directed out the window, "as I am currently unable to do so for myself, and all." Viggo could almost have chuckled at those words, at himself for performing a body-servant's task, at Dom for his pride as he sat naked with wrists chained behind him and legs roped to the bed. Instead, he leaned a little closer to Dom's warm skin, and took a reverent breath. Then Viggo drew a long wet line with his tonguetip on that skin, from the ridge of Dom's collarbone, up along the vessel in his throat; the pulse in that vessel sped beneath Viggo's tongue, and by the time he reached Dom's jaw it was quivering, but Dom otherwise didn't move, and Viggo finished with a gentle bite to the curve of his ear.

Then he stood up, setting the blade and rag in the bowl. Dom continued to stare out the window, though he trembled like a harpstring and chewed his lower lip.

"Andy will be in to release you directly," Viggo told him. Dom blinked but otherwise gave no sign of noticing, no sign that Viggo was even in the room, and even as Viggo watched his trembling stilled. Viggo sighed, sad and disappointed and proud all at once, and so roused he ached, and gazed at his lovely young man for another moment before he added, "he thinks I'm a fool to attend you myself, you know."

"He thinks you're a fool to have not killed me," Dominic said, almost tonelessly. "And so do I."

Viggo sighed again, picked up the bowl, and left the room.


	4. Be Careful What You Wish For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Dominic tells Elijah.

Title: Be Careful What You Wish For  
Fandom: LOTRPS AU  
Characters/Pairing: Dom, Elijah  
Rating: PG  
Written For: [](http://teawith.livejournal.com/profile)[**teawith**](http://teawith.livejournal.com/)   
Disclaimer: Not mine, never happened, all that jazz.

 

"When I was first his _eromenos_..." Dom looked up out of the window, and Elijah watched the tilt of his neck and the way his eyes caught the light, and waited. "When I was first his boy... I was so deep in love. I measured the whole world by its reflection in his eyes. I wanted to leave my father's house to live here, leave my studies and my life. I wished for nothing more than to be his, ever and always."

Elijah winced, even before Dom's bark of sardonic laughter. "I must have wished so hard Someone heard me, I suppose. They always say, be careful what you wish for."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you're wondering, I intended for Elijah and Dominic to run away together and rejoin Billy and Billy's brother in law, Sean. I never got around to writing that, though.


End file.
